Chilli stuffed cencaru (hardtail scad)

Cencaru has very hard and tough skin which will keep the meat moist during cooking. Just before eating use a fork to peel the skin which should come off quite easily. When I was living overseas I used to yearn for this dish but it is impossible to get cencaru as it is not available outside South East Asia

Ingredients

2 hard tailed mackerel, torpedo scad

Fresh red chilies

Dried red chilies

Shallots

Garlic

A small knob of tamarind paste

The amt depends on how many fishes you are cooking

To prepare the chilli paste

Cut and boil the dried red chilies to soften it

Cut all the other ingredients into smaller pieces

Add 50 ml water and all the ingredients into the blender

Blend until smooth

Put a little water into a small knob of tamarind paste and mix well

Heat up a little oil and put in the chilli paste and tamarind water

Stir fry the paste on low fire until it is almost dry

Remove the paste and keep in the fridge to let it set

This will make it easier to stuff the fish later

To prepare the fish

Make two short slits along the dorsal side of the fish to form a “pocket”

Using the tip of the knife, make the “pocket” wider and deeper inside

Dry the fish so that it will not splatter when fried

When the fish is sufficiently dried start preparing it

Spoon some of the cooked sambal into the slit

Put in as much of the sambal as possible fill the “pockets”

Put in some of the sambal into the fish stomach

Here it is all ready to be fried

I had to remove the head otherwise it will not fit into my frying pan

In the past I always make the slits the whole length of the fish and ended up losing half the sambal in the oil

Heat the wok for 1 minute

Put in enough oil to shallow fry the fish

Heat the oil until smoking hot

Put in the fish and fry until lightly charred

Turn the fish over to fry the other side

Transfer to a serving platter and serve immediately